


Like A Melody In My Head

by zams



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), Tommy Ratliff (Musician)
Genre: M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-31
Updated: 2010-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:46:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zams/pseuds/zams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High school AU. <em>For his 15th birthday, Tommy wants a kiss. His first kiss. Luckily for him, his best friend Adam has a plan to give him what he wants.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Like A Melody In My Head

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thezerbitz](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=thezerbitz).



> Written for [thezerbitz](http://thezerbitz.livejournal.com/) for the 2010 [gay_xmas_elves](http://community.livejournal.com/gay_xmas_elves/) exchange on LJ. I hope you enjoy it! :D I included as many of your likes as I could: fluff, light angst, first kisses, and a high school AU with (sort of) awkward!Adam and punky-but-unsure!Tommy.
> 
> Beta'd by Taylor and Alissa. I can't thank them enough for all their help. I'd crash and burn without them, I know. ♥ Also thanks to [fobsessed54](http://fobsessed54.livejournal.com/) and [valress](http://valress.livejournal.com/) for last minute read-throughs before I posted and was freaking out about this fic.

**

 

Adam feels like throwing up on the way to school, he's so nervous. He doesn't know how he's going to get through today.

"Honey, what's wrong?" his mom asks while Adam's smoothing his hair for the tenth time since they left his house and nervously checking his face in the mirror. "You never ask me to drive you to school, and why are you so dressed up? It's not picture day, is it?"

Adam glances down at himself, frowning. It's true; he's wearing a new, shiny black button up that he got from his grandma for his birthday, his best pair of skinny black jeans, and the awesome chunky boots he doesn't often wear because they hurt his feet. The necklaces and bracelets aren't out of the ordinary for him, but they definitely complete the outfit. "No, Mom, it's not picture day," he says, sighing and fiddling with his hair again.

Leila spares him a disbelieving glance, but she doesn't press the issue, other than asking, "You're sure you're okay?"

"I'm _fine_ ," Adam says, huffing and turning away and looking out the window. He's relieved when his mom doesn't say anything more; he didn't mean to be so snappy, but he's nervous.

He's only told his friend Taylor about his plan because he was going crazy thinking about it. After all, it's not everyday that your best friend and secret crush tells you that he's never been kissed and wants to be for his birthday and you decide to kiss him.

Tommy's really cute, and Adam was surprised that he's never kissed anyone. Not that Adam's kissed a lot of boys himself, but he's still been kissed.

He's second guessing his plan for about the hundredth time, but he already got a text from Taylor warning him that he better not chicken out 'or else.' Taylor might be smaller than Adam, but he's tough; Adam's kinda scared of him when he gets mad.

Taylor says that Tommy likes him, but Adam's not so sure. Sighing, he looks over at his mom; it's not exactly cool, but he needs little reassurance. "You know it's Tommy's birthday today, right?" he asks.

His mom nods, and Adam says, "I'm going to give him a present, but I'm not sure he'll like it."

Shrugging, his mom says, "He's your boyfriend; I'm sure he'll like whatever you give him."

"What?!" Adam exclaims, shocked. "Tommy's not my boyfriend."

His mom turns to him, looking embarrassed. "Um," she says, "I thought you were already boyfriends. I've thought you and Tommy were going out for months now. He's always over at the house, you go see a movie nearly every weekend, and he looks at you like you're his everything. It's adorable, really."

Adam slouches back in his seat, dumbfounded.

Leila chuckles as she pulls into the parking lot at the high school, snagging the only open space. She reaches over and ruffles Adam's hair.

"Mom!" Adam whines, batting her hands away. "Stop it! I spent forever fixing my hair this morning! It has to be perfect."

"It'll be fine. Stop worrying. You could shave your head and Tommy wouldn't care. Or even wear pink," Leila teases.

Adam closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths to calm down. He thinks of Tommy, of how he looked when he asked for a kiss, pink cheeks, blond hair hanging in his eyes, a small, embarrassed smile on his face, and Adam wants to be the boy who gives him his first kiss.

"Thanks, Mom," he says, opening his eyes. His nervousness disappears, growing anticipation and confidence replacing it as he opens the car door, and he grabs his backpack and gets out of the car.

"No problem, honey."

\---

As he normally does, Adam meets Tommy at his locker. Adam rushes over to him, shouting "Happy Birthday, Tommy!" at the top of his lungs. Everyone's used to Adam's boisterousness, so no one gives Adam more than a passing glance at the disruption.

Tommy, though, blushes bright red, and ducks his head shyly. "Adam… Why'd you do that?"

Adam smiles. "Because it's a special day and I wanted everyone to know it."

Tommy looks up at him and manages to give Adam a tiny smile in return. Ignoring the way his heart pounds, Adam steps closer to Tommy. "Happy birthday," he says again before reaching out and pulling Tommy into a hug.

After a moment, Tommy slowly brings his arms around Adam and hugs him in return.

Adam's hugged Tommy plenty of times before (he's pretty touchy feely), but this hug feels different. Better. He likes Tommy pressed up close against him, and how he fits in the circle of Adam's arms.

"Thanks, Adam," Tommy says.

"You're welcome." Adam unzips his backpack and pulls out a brightly colored present. "This is for you," he says, handing it to Tommy. "I have another present for you, but you have to wait until after school to get it."

"You want me to open this now?"

"Sure," Adam says. "I think you'll like it."

Tommy eagerly opens the present, paper falling onto the floor. "Wow, Adam," he says when he opens the box.

Adam smiles, pride swelling in his chest at Tommy's positive reaction.

"Look at all this stuff! It's awesome." He looks back up at Adam. "But you didn't have to get me so much."

"I know," Adam says, and he does. He'll admit that he may have went a little overboard with the gifts (a Marilyn Manson tee-shirt, black eye shadow and nail polish, earrings, and a necklace), but Tommy's his best friend and Adam likes buying him things. "I wanted to."

"Well, thanks," Tommy says quietly. "I love it."

"You're welcome," Adam says, but he's not paying attention to what Tommy's saying anymore. He's too distracted by how hot Tommy looks right now, all happy and smiley.

Unaware that he's moving, Adam steps closer to Tommy, staring at him.

Tommy stares back, his beautiful brown eyes wide and longing, and Adam's trapped. Dropping his gaze down to Tommy's lips, he can’t help but lick his lips. He wants to kiss Tommy so bad.

 _I want a kiss. My first kiss._

Tommy's birthday wish repeats itself in Adam's head, tempting him, and he leans down, lips barely an inch from Tommy's. He's ready to forget his plan and just kiss Tommy now, _he's so close_ , when the bell rings, startling them both.

Tommy jumps back and nearly falls over. Adam reaches for him, but he backs away, eyes darting around.

"We're late," Tommy says unnecessarily. "I, uh, gotta go." Clutching his present and grabbing his backpack, Tommy slams his locker closed and practically runs away, leaving Adam standing there with a frown.

\---

Adam thinks about their almost kiss all morning.

Tommy's in a lot of advanced classes, so he and Adam only share a few, but Adam watches Tommy in the ones they do have together. Tommy doesn't look at Adam once, which is strange. Usually, Tommy will catch Adam's eye a few times, either mouthing something to him or just smiling at him, but Tommy ignores him in English and gym, and even partners with Isaac for their chemistry lab, leaving Adam with Taylor.

Not that Adam doesn’t like Taylor, he's one of his best friends, but Adam's _always_ Tommy's partner. It's like an unwritten rule. When Tommy asked Isaac to be his partner, Adam didn't miss the confused look Isaac gave him before he agreed. It hurts that Tommy rejected him like that, especially today.

And now at lunch, Tommy won't look at him, let alone talk to him, and when Adam finally gets his attention, Tommy just quickly looks away again. It's so awkward, and even Taylor, Isaac, and Allison can tell something's up between him and Tommy, but they don't say anything.

It sucks.

Adam would _swear_ that Tommy wanted to kiss him this morning, and he knows they would have kissed if the bell hadn't rung, so he wonders what the deal is.

Is Tommy embarrassed? Nervous? Freaked? Glancing up at Tommy again, Adam sees him staring down at his lunch, picking at his food.

Frustrated, Adam turns away from him and asks Isaac about his new camera.

\---

Adam's annoyed and irritated the rest of the day, and he almost gets detention for 'smart mouthing' his French teacher.

When the final bell rings, Adam's so relieved he can't get out of the classroom fast enough. It was awful being so out of sync with Tommy, and Adam can barely stand it. He just wants to go home and sulk.

Scowling, he throws his unneeded textbooks into his locker and shoves the ones he needs into his backpack.

He was _so_ stupid.

Looking at his locker door, he sees Tommy's drawing of them laughing with their arms over each other's shoulders, and he has to blink against tears.

They've been best friends since they were in third grade, and now Adam's convinced he screwed it up – what if Tommy's uncomfortable around him?

When they first met, Tommy was so cute and shy that Adam couldn't help but want to be his best friend. That afternoon at recess, Adam went over to him and asked Tommy if he wanted to share his dessert, his mom's delicious chocolate chip cookies. Tommy blinked at him a few times, like he was surprised someone was talking to him, before he smiled and took the offered cookie.

Since then, they've been inseparable, and Adam will never forgive himself if Tommy doesn't want to be his friend anymore.

He leans his forehead on his locker. Maybe he'll bang his head against it a few times. That might make him feel better.

"Adam?"

Adam whips around at the soft voice. "Tommy…"

He looks terrible. Adam hasn't seen Tommy since lunch, and he has no idea what happened to make him look like this. His eye shadow, normally perfect and precise, is smudged and his hair is in complete disarray, as if he ran his fingers through it all afternoon.

"I'm so sorry, Adam," Tommy says.

Stunned, Adam blurts out, "Why are _you_ sorry? I'm sorry. Trying to kiss you was a bad idea."

"No!" Tommy exclaims, his eyes wide. He moves closer to Adam. "I… I wanted you to kiss me."

Adam's own eyes widen. "What?"

Tommy flushes, shrugging one shoulder. "Yeah," he says, aiming for casual and missing by a mile. "I've wanted to kiss you for a while."

"Why, uh, didn't you say anything?" Adam asks, still stunned by what Tommy's saying.

"I couldn't!" Tommy looks down, like he can't say this and look at Adam at the same time. "I wasn't sure you liked me, and I didn't want to make things weird."

"So why did you run away from me this morning and then ignore me?" Adam asks, itching to reach out and pull Tommy into his arms.

"I panicked," Tommy admits. "I thought I was, like, hallucinating, when you leaned down, and I freaked, – and then I figured you were mad and couldn't face you after in class and during lunch."

"So you're talking to me now because?"

Tommy glances at Adam before looking back at the floor. "Isaac, uh, yelled at me when I told him what happened, and told me I was being an idiot. 'Adam's totally gone for you, dude! Are you crazy?' he said."

Adam chuckles. "That sounds like Isaac. And it's true. So… if I try to kiss you right now, you're not gonna run away again?"

Tommy's eyes light up at the prospect, and he steps closer to Adam, so close that Adam can feel the heat from his body. Tilting his head up, Tommy whispers, "Why don't you try it and find out?"

Adam swallows, heart racing. "Maybe I will," he says, and he cups Tommy's face in his hands, almost losing it when Tommy's eyes flutter closed.

Gripping Adam's shoulders, Tommy says, "Kiss me, Adam."

It's probably a bad idea since they're still at school, and a lot of teachers are probably still around, but Adam can't resist. Quickly glancing around to make sure they're alone, Adam slowly bring his head down, intending to give Tommy the kiss he wants, but is struck with a sudden case of nerves, and he pauses right before his lips touch Tommy's.

Oh, god. He's going to kiss Tommy. Actually _kiss_ Tommy. He's thought about it a lot, but now that it's actually happening, Adam's not sure he can go through with it.

He's right in the middle of working himself into a fit when Tommy speaks. "Adam?"

Adam's eyes snap down and meet Tommy's, and the uncertain hurt sparkling in them causes Adam's chest to tighten painfully.

"Don't… don't you want to kiss me anymore?"

"I do!" Adam rushes to assert. He can't think of anything he'd ever want to do instead of kissing Tommy. "I just." He pauses, sighing. "I just want this to be perfect for you," he says.

Tommy's silent for a moment, and then he says, "Adam, no matter what, it'll be perfect because it's you."

"Really?"

"Really," Tommy says, and with that, Tommy pushes himself up and crashes his lips into Adam's, eagerly kissing him.

Adam _oofs_ , caught off guard, but he quickly catches on, pulling Tommy closer and returning the kiss, all worries of a teacher seeing them forgotten.

Tommy doesn't know what he's doing, and Adam doesn't really know either, so there are some bumped noses and scraped teeth, but they don't let that stop them. With a little maneuvering, Adam hunching down a bit and Tommy tilting his head to the other side, the kiss becomes much more enjoyable.

Adam's hands move from Tommy's face to wrap around his waist, and Tommy makes a pleased murmur into the kiss, his tongue pushing into Adam's mouth.

Adam doesn’t know how long they stand there, wrapped up in each other's arms in the deserted hallway, but when they do finally pull away from one another, Adam's heart is pounding and his jeans feel a little tight.

Tommy looks dazed, eyes distant, and he lightly touches his lips. Adam licks his own lips at the sight. Tommy tasted like cherry lip balm, and Adam definitely wants to taste that again.

Brushing the hair out of Tommy's face, Adam tucks the soft strands behind his ear. "So did you like your first kiss?" Adam asks, grinning.

"Yeah," Tommy says, nodding. "We're going to do that a lot."

Adam laughs, and all the tension from the day drains away. "We definitely are."

Stepping away from Tommy, Adam slings his backpack over his shoulder and holds out a hand. Tommy takes his hand with a smile, and their fingers lace together tightly.

"You know," Adam says as they walk down the hallway, "I had a plan. I was going to take you to the park, ask you to be my boyfriend, and then kiss you. It was going to be romantic."

"Well," Tommy says, drawing out the word. "You could still do all that anyway. I wouldn't mind."

"Yeah?" Adam asks, squeezing Tommy's hand.

"Yeah. I'd like it."

"I like _you_."

"Then I guess it's a good thing I like you too, huh?"

"Yeah, Tommy, it's a really good thing."

 

 **END**


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